Activists boycott area shop

A radical black rights organization has organized a boycott of Sam's Place, the grocery store where a black 14-year-old boy was shot dead during an attempted robbery last month. The African People's Solidarity Committee of the National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement started the boycott soon after the January 14 incident on the grounds that the shooting was a case of "African people . . . being murdered by trigger-happy merchants with the full sanction and approval of the government." But Sam's Place owner David Graves said this week the publicity surrounding the boycott attempt has in fact increased his business. "The day they [distributed boycott fliers] business more than doubled," Graves said. Late January 14, 14-year-old Andre McNatte entered Sam's Place with another man and demanded that clerk Kevin Dales "give it up," police reported. Dales instead shot McNatte once in the left shoulder. McNatte fled, along with another man, and died of his wounds an hour later, police said. The APSC, whose goal is to involve white people in black rights activism, promoted the boycott primarily by distributing leaflets in the vicinity of Sam's Place, on 405 South 45th Street. "We wanted to send out a message to area merchants that they can not take the life of an African person without paying the price," Uhuru representative Sandy Thompson said. "The court generally does not press charges against merchants or cops who kill black people." Thompson added that "it's outrageous -- it's just unbelievable that the police have not charged [Dales]. There's a lot of instances where the media attempts to criminalize young black people -- I mean, this kid is 14 years old!" But Graves insisted that the shooting was not racially motivated. "[The Uhuru Movement] is full of shit," Graves said. "The only racial issue that was brought up was by these lunatics -- it's just not factual stuff that they're doing." The store owner added that Sam's Place "has always been a multi-racial environment." "It's almost an insult that someone would bring up the question of race," he added. Graves estimated that his clientele is approximately half black and half white, and that there has been no change in this racial breakdown since the shooting or the boycott. "There was no division on racial lines regarding anything," he said. "As many whites as blacks came in and expressed regrets over the incident." Dales, who still refuses to talk to reporters, no longer works as a clerk at Sam's Place, although Graves said he still works for the store as an administrator. "Dales is a very private person, and this whole thing has been unnerving for him," Graves said.

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